Combined effects of the mycotoxins aflatoxin B1 and cyclopiazonic acid on Sprague-Dawley rats

This study was conducted to determine whether exposure to cyclopiazonic acid (CPA) and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) would alter the toxicity associated with exposure to either toxin individually. Groups of male rats were administered 0, 0.1 or 4.0 mg CPA/kg body weight/day intragastrically (three groups per dose level) for three consecutive days and 30 min after each of these CPA doses the rats were dosed by gavage with 0, 0.1 or 2.0 mg AFB1/kg body weight/day. Six of the 12 rats given each of these nine treatments were killed on day 4 after the initial dosing, and the rest were allowed a recovery period of 4 days prior to being killed. Weight loss in the three groups receiving 2.0 mg AFB1/kg/day occurred within 24 hr of the first doses. Feed consumption by these rats was about 60% of that in the other groups. By the end of the recovery period, rats in these three groups had lost an average of 31-38 g. Feed consumption throughout the recovery period by rats in the 2.0-mg AFB1 groups was about 50% of the control value, except in the group that also received the high dose of CPA, in which it was 75%. Gross pathological findings were primarily limited to rats in the high AFB1 group, and included icterus, shrunken liver and lesions in the kidney at the cortico-medullary junction. Microscopic changes were characteristic of aflatoxicosis in rats. Glycocholic acid assays indicated liver damage only in those groups that received the high AFB1 dose. We conclude that neither toxin potentiates the action of the other at the dose levels used in this study.